Chidera Eggerue

Chidera Eggerue (pen name, The Slumflower ) is a British Nigerian writer and fashion blogger. She is best known for her book, What a Time to Be Alone, and the online campaign #SaggyBoobsMatter.

Early life Eggerue was raised in Southeast London in Peckham, a neighborhood that is mostly British Nigerian. Eggerue attended Goose Green Primary School, in East Dulwich. Eggerue then moved on to Notre Dame School for her secondary education. Her family is Igbo.

Career In 2017, Eggerue started #SaggyBoobsMatter, a hashtag that gained prominence on Twitter and Instagram, to challenge the convention that women with large breasts must wear a bra if their breasts sag. She later decided to embrace her shape and posted a picture wearing a dress without a bra in September 2017, using the hashtag. According to Eggerue, "“There is enough room for everybody in the body positivity movement. But we must work together to make room for those more marginalised than us.” Eggerue has received backlash to the campaign. Early in 2018, one of her braless photos was turned into a meme that referred to her and another black woman as unattractive. The blog features modern street style fashions that are affordable. She also writes on topics like friendship, dating, racism, and sexism.

Film and television In early 2018, she hosted a Newsbeat documentary that explored hair loss and her own experiences with traction alopecia.

Books After being encouraged by her digital followers, Eggerue created a zine in Adobe InDesign The book focuses on self-love and contains advice on how young women can be happy alone. Eggerue uses Igbo proverbs throughout the book.

Works

2018. What a Time to be Alone: The Slumflower's guide to why you are already enough. Publication date 26 July 2018, Quadrille Publishing. 2020. How To Get Over A Boy. Publication date 6 February 2020, Hardie Grant Publishing.

Accolades

2018 - BBC, 100 Women